NAME

Task::BeLike::JJNAPIORK - Stuff I use to start or maintain a CPAN project

SYNOPSIS

    cpanm Task::BeLike::JJNAPIORK

DESCRIPTION

When I bootstrap a new project, or when someone wants to contribute to one of my projects, there's a handful of modules needed which are not listed in the Makefile.PL. Think of these as 'meta' projects files, or like a SDK for working on CPAN modules. They are not things someone who is just using the module needs, just authors.

This module is intended to bundle those together so as to make it faster for me to bootstrap a new project and to make it easier for anyone that wants to contribute to a project I am working on. Also, its one less thing I need to do when getting started on a new project or reviving an old one.

USAGE

Typically when I start a new project, I build my Makefile.PL around the Module::Install ecosystem. I also use App::cpanminus and a few other bits to make using local::lib and git easier. This means before I can even get started (or a contributor started) we need some unnecessary ceremony. The Makefile.PL is great for managing the dependencies of a project, but it can't recursively manage its own dependencies, which means that authors (NOT installers) will always need to install a few bits to get started working. My goal here is to reduce that effort, at least for my current workflow. Hopefully you will catch some useful ideas that work for you.

Unlike most of the distributions in the Task::BeLike namespace (see: http://search.cpan.org/search?query=Task::BeLike), this is not a catchall of everything I love to use. This is a pretty minimum list, most which have no or few dependencies with a very high rate of installation success. So if you want to be like me when starting a new project, this is it!

Typically I assume a locally installed perl (which is probably installed via App::perlbrew) and nothing else when starting a project. I then bootstrap a local::lib managed local directory of the basic dependencies and go from there. I use the online version of App::cpanminus to get this rolling:

    curl http://cpanmin.us/ -L | perl - -l ~/mylocal Task::BeLike::JJNAPIORK

After that, I open a command interpreter who's environment has been fixed up to find the local::lib which App::cpanminus has created:

    ~/mylocal/bin/localenv bash

For more info on the localenv command, see App::local::lib::helper and the documentation for local::lib.

Lastly, I will use the project Makefile.PL to install project level dependencies, start a new project, etc. It is considered a best practice to always build your application as though it was destined for CPAN, even if you are building an internal or proprietary application. For help creating a basic project skeleton, see Module::Setup and Module::Setup::Flavor::JJNAPIORK.

MODULES INSTALLED

This Task module installs the following

App::cpanminus

Easier to install CPAN modules

App::local::lib::helper

Make it easier to use local::lib

Module::Setup

For when I am too lazy to make my own project skeletons

Module::Setup::Flavor::JJNAPIORK

If I am using Module::Setup I want a flavor that makes sense to me.

Module::Install

Easier to manage your project dependencies.

Module::Install::Repository

Add source control repository information to META

Module::Install::AutoManifest

Make and clean manifest files for me.

Module::Install::ReadmeMarkdownFromPod

Make the readme file I am always forgetting to do. Markdown has become popular since its very readable in a text view and if you are using Github it will get parsed and rendered very nicely.

Module::Install::ManifestSkip

Start you off with a sane MANIFEST.SKIP file.

Module::Install::Homepage

Set or guess a reasonable homepage for your module.

Module::Install::AutoLicense

Create a lICENSE file it it is missing.

AUTHOR

John Napiorkowski <<jjnapiork@cpan.org> >

COPYRIGHT & LICENSE

Copyright 2011, John Napiorkowski

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.